Buying a soloist?

Triathlon Forum
1

aloha:

this summer i’m going to be focusing more on sprint and olympic tris, and will be buying a new rig. i already have an old-school KM-40 (the version w/ seat tube) which is steep, 650, etc. i’m thinking a soloist is the way forward for short-course racing, as it’s stiff and light, relatively aero, and can be moderately steep. also i really like the idea of having a slack road bike to train on once in a while. only concerns: i ride aggressively in big gears, am 6’ and 170. will jammers or etc. give me a decent position on this bike, or do i need to make it a dedicated TT w/ C2’s and etc on it?

as you can probably tell, my mind feels made up. convince me i shouldn’t buy it. or, agree that i should and tell me what i need to dress it up.

2

While I’m much smaller than you (5’7"), I ride the soloist in slack angle position with Jammers. I’m about as aggressive as I can be without flipping the seat post around and adding real aero-bars. I think if you are going to ride in a similar position, make sure you’re pretty flexible in the lower back and hips. I had a set-up and am very flexible and the position works well for me. I would check out the bikesport website for Tom Demerly’s review if you haven’t already.